Malaysia believes far fewer investigators need to be deployed to the MH17 crash site than the 190 Australian Federal Police Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s plans to send.

Malaysia’s three-person team that visited the site on three days last week believes at least 30 additional investigators need to be deployed in addition to themselves, three Dutch investigators and one official of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

International political analysts have criticised Mr Abbott’s plan to send such a large group of Australians, saying it risked increasing tensions in the Ukrainian territory held by Russian-backed rebels.

An Australian Defence Force figure has also warned against any expectations that Australians could secure to the site where the Boeing 777 was shot down with 298 people on board.

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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has directly negotiated with rebel leader Alexander Borodai, will travel to the Netherlands on Wednesday to help negotiate a safe corridor to the crash site.

A statement released from Mr Najib’s office said that unfortunately events on the ground, including fighting between Ukrainian and separatist forces, have prevented a large contingent of investigators being deployed.

Malaysian investigators are preparing a report on the crash site.

“Once the report is finalised they plan to return to the crash site, if possible with a larger contingent of investigators and in more secure circumstances,” the statement said.

In a series of secret telephone calls Mr Najib reached agreement with the rebels that other larger nations had been unable to achieve to return the bodies and handover the plane’s black box.

“My priority now is to ensure that the third part of the deal is honoured and that international investigators are given full and secure access to the crash site,” Mr Najib said.

“This will require the cooperation of those in control of the crash site and the Ukrainian armed forces,” he said.

Mr Najib’s statement said the Malaysian investigators have not visited the entire crash site that is spread over kilometres but took notes and photographs at the scene.

“The Malaysian team believe that at least 30 investigators would be required to cover the entire site in addition to themselves, the three Dutch investigators and one OSCE member that has been present at the crash site,” the statement said.

Angus Houston, Australia’s special envoy in Ukraine, said on Sunday that Australian’s contingent to the site would be a “non-aggressive, non-threatening force so that nobody will interfere with it.”

A small number of Australian troops would provide help provide logistics for the police who would lead the operation.

Mr Houston told the ABC’s Insiders program that Australians who had twice visited the site had not encountered any hostility from the rebels who control the area.

The Netherlands is sending a mission of 40 unarmed military police to the site to help complete forensic work and gather evidence, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Mr Najib has told his nation the remains of the 43 Malaysian victims of the crash will not be home for Monday’s celebrations marking the end of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.

Earlier he had said his government would do all it could to have the bodies returned for the most significant time of the year for Muslims in the predominantly Islamic nation.

“We cannot avoid a very painstaking process,” he said.

Malaysians have been shocked by the loss of two of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777s in less than five months.

MH370 that vanished on March 8 is believed to have inexplicably veered thousands of kilometres off course and to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.